Foxconn founder sets sights on Taiwan’s presidency

An attempt by the founder and chief executive of China's largest private sector employer to be president of Taiwan could alter relations between the two countries. The FT's Kathrin Hille looks at what could happen under a Terry Gou presidency

Footage from Reuters. Produced by Tom Griggs. Edited by Paolo Pascual.

Transcript

Terry Gou is no average CEO. His company, Foxconn, is the world's largest manufacturer of electronic gadgets, the largest assembler of iPhones, and China's biggest private sector employer. And it has made him Taiwan's richest man. Now Gou has set his sights on a new goal. He wants to run for president and inject new life into Taiwan's stalling economy.

But Taiwan is no average country. Its giant neighbour China claims the island as its territory, and Beijing threatens to invade if Taiwan resists unification indefinitely. China also uses its growing power to isolate Taipei. Some politicians in the Kuomintang, the opposition party whose ticket Gou could run on, think he could use his company's economic clout and his personal ties to Chinese leaders to break this deadlock.

But critics say Foxconn's assets in China would make a president Gou vulnerable to pressure from Beijing. They point out that the Communist party often pushes Taiwanese investors in China to help it intervene in the island's politics. Like any Kuomintang candidate, Gou would likely be softer on cross-straits relations than Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's current president. But how far he would go in accommodating Beijing is an open question.